Bricks as Pets

Is it right?

Tired of picking up after your pet?

"Red Bricks (Brickus vermillius) are found around the world. Their association with humans is a long one, for bricks have been found in archaeological sites from the very ancient to the modern.

The vast majority of bricks are working bricks, used mainly in construction of human houses and other buildings. A tiny minority of bricks, however, are unfortunately kept for human consumption, a use that is thankfully dwindling under the force of anti-brick-cruelty laws."

Pet Brick FAQ


The site also has more than enough information about rats.

Rat Behavior and Biology



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Grandma Knew Best

Advice from the past

History does repeat itself, so we might learn from advice from the past.

"Take a step back in time as I share words of wisdom from my collection of about 1,000 classic advice books in a quest to solve modern-day dilemmas.

The books span from 1822 to 1978 and cover the age-old topics of dating, love, living together, marriage, health, beauty, puberty, sex, etiquette, housekeeping, home economics, and home repairs. I've spent years scouting out used bookstores and thrift shops to locate these treasures of self help. "

MissAbigail.com
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A Way Cool Paint-Picker

Just slap it on

If you have decided to paint your home, or just this inside of the downstairs coat closet, the Behr paint people have a neat tool.

Color Smart

You still have to slop the paint on yourself, though.

Here's another color generator:

Top 8 Color Tools

EasyRGB matches generated RGB values to paints, inks, etc.

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Be a Local Scoble

Photo Walk

Robert Scoble, tech evangelist, has been touting the fun of Photowalking. Getting together with a group of like-minded people to just walk around and take pictures.

Robert has made a number of videos that you can see on his blog The ScobleShow on PodTech.net.

Locally Kevin Freitas, a web developer and community supporter, solicited participation in a Tacoma area walk.

Since digital film is free. After you've got a camera, why not set a walk up in your city?

The results of our stroll can be seen at theses links:

• Tacoma Photo Gang - Shot da Tideflats
  
  
• Gavin Jensen.net
  
  
• Tacoma Photo Gang on Flickr
  
  
• Tacoma Foto Gang Muvee
  
  
• Waterfront shots
  
  
• Light and Power

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Did You Know?

Nerd Conversation Nibblets

Here's a part of the list of knowledge tidbits from Kelly's Bar

Did You Know?

• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
  
• The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)
  
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
  
• The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.
  
• There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
  
• Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.
  
• Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
  

If you have doubts about these "facts", look at the Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages


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Presidents' or President's Day

Neither

The third Monday in February is officially Washington's birthday, not Presidents' Day according to the federal government.

Individual states may designate the day as anything they want, but the federal holiday is Washington's birthday.

Snopes.com

Interestingly enough, although Georgia celebrates Washington's Birthday, the Governor is accorded the right to designate when state holidays occur. In Georgia, Washington's Birthday is recognized the day after Christmas.

There is an urban legend that when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was implemented in 1971, President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation calling for a Presidents' Day on the third Monday to honor all U.S. presidents.

Each February both the Law Library at the Library of Congress and the Nixon Library field an upsurge in calls on this question. No evidence of this exists in Nixon's official papers.

Wikipedia

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Non-Designer's Type Book, The

By Robin Williams

ISBN 0-201-35367-9
Peachpit Press 1998



About the Author
Williams teaches electronic typography and has written some excellent books on digital design.

Anyone who has witnessed the horrific use of type on many personal web sites knows how badly these books are needed. Clear explanations and good illustrations are the hallmarks of both volumes.

Also author of The PC is not a typewriter.

Book Description
Each short chapter explores a different type secret including use of evocative typography, tailoring typeface to project, working with spacing, punctuation marks, special characters, fonts, justification, and much more. It is written in the lively, engaging style that has made Williams one of the most popular computer authors today.

It uses numerous examples to illustrate the subtle details that make the difference between good and sophisticated use of type. The non-platform specific, non-software specific approach to the book makes this a must-have for any designer's bookshelf - from type novices to more experienced graphic designers and typesetters.


Quote

"Most packages also have a discretionary hyphen, affectionately called a "dischy." If you type Ctrl+- (Control Hypen on a PC), the word will hyphenate at that point, that hyphen will disappear when the word moves to another location.

Also (and this is the point), if you type a discretionary hyphen in front of a hyphenated word, it will not hyphenate at all, ever."

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Other Than Google

Info Tools

Add even more depth to your research than just the usual search engines.

Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around eight billion web pages indexed. That's a lot of information. But it's nothing compared to what else is out there.
Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index.

Have you heard of:

1. Yippy - A metasearch engine that combines the results of several top search engines.
   
   
2. Intute - A searchable database of trusted sites, reviewed and monitored by subject specialists.
   
   
3. INFOMINE - A virtual library of Internet resources relevant to university students and faculty. Built by librarians from the University of California, California State University, the University of Detroit-Mercy, and Wake Forest University.
   
   
4. Librarians' Internet Index - A search engine listing sites deemed trustworthy by actual human librarians, not just a Googlebot.

Topics Covered in this Article

• Deep Web Search Engines
  
• Art
  
• Books Online
  
• Business
  
• Consumer
  
• Economic and Job Data
  
• Finance and Investing
  
• General Research
  
• Government Data
  
• International
  
• Law and Politics
  
• Library of Congress
  
• Medical and Health
  
• Science
  
• Transportation

And many more: Research beyond Google See all Topics